Anything but not everything…for Tiny…love Teeto x

This week I’ve been joining in with Kate Northrup’s #dolessexperiment & it’s been fantastic. I’ve been watching all the mini videos during the week & thinking very carefully about the ideas. You’re a bit young to join in now but it’s a good one to be aware of as early as possible which is why I thought I’d tell you about it.

Kate Northrup wrote a fabulous book called ‘Money, a love story’ (a great one to read as early as possible) & now this new experiment is all about “having more by doing less”. It’s about identifying what drains us & making real efforts to eliminate (or at least really minimise) those things to make room what what we love. Now, I know it sounds all bit ideal but really, why shouldn’t it be? The great thing about us humans is that we all have different strengths & different interests (thank goodness, can you imagine how dull it would be if we were all the same?) & so between us, we can get it ALL done. The trick is to identify our ‘thing’ (or things), those things that make us lose hours & hours because we are so ‘into’ what were doing. Everything else can be done either by someone else (someone who is good at & likes doing &/or gets paid to do that thing) or we can find ways to to spend less time on them. For example…

supermarket shopping…these days we can order & online & get our food shopping delivered (this isn’t a great example for me because I actually enjoy food shopping)….. 🙂

hoovering the car…something I seriously can’t stand doing because I don’t have the right nozzles on my Dyson & it makes me cross…but while I’m doing my food shopping there are lovely people who ask me if they can wash/hoover my car (for money of course) & it’s all done by the time I’m done… 🙂

website building…this is my next project & since the programs have changed I don’t know how to do it. I can spend time learning or I can pay someone to build my website while I’m getting on with my designs… 🙂

house cleaning…gardening…decorating…ironing…dog walking…skill sharing is a great option if you can’t justify spending the money on getting help…I gave myself extra time today by not hoovering my house…I can do it tomorrow 🙂 (or not)…

Now, eliminating (or minimising) the things we don’t like/can’t do isn’t about being lazy, it’s about opening up our lives to what brings us joy. By filling our days with the work/people/activities we love, we can live our lives & earn our money in a much more fulfilling way.

Now, you know me, I love a to do list but do I really need to do all the things I write down on those lists? Hmmm probably not. Lots of people have too much on their to do lists because they just can’t say no & so end up doing waaaay more than they need to for others before they do anything for themselves. I have turned down a few things already this year because I know that all the extra things for other people are taking away the time & energy I need to get my own work done. I’ve always had the idea that turning down paid work is bad karma but this experiment has really helped me change my mind. I’ve been putting my studio at the bottom of the list behind everything else for literally years now. I have an Etsy shop which has been sitting empty for too long because I’ve been saying yes to everyone except me. I have a clear vision that as soon as my studio is organised (all the furniture is in the right place I just need to organise all the things in there) I can get back to my own designs & add them onto my Etsy shop. Beading is what really brings me joy & so the time in between my I DRIVE U weeks could be spent working on my beading BUT only if I make the changes I need to. Once I’m set up in my new studio, I’ll have all my equipment to hand which will make all my sewing even more of a joy.

My studio has seemed like a distant dream until the #dolessexperiment & now I know I can have it. It’s really true that we can do anything but we can’t do everything! Thank you Kate Northrup for shining a light on this, it’s a great message for all of us, in all the different ways we live our lives. The feeling of freedom I have now is amazing.